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THE FACT OF GOD. 



y BT 

EMOEY MILLER, A. M., D. D., LL. D. 












CINCINNATI: JENNINGS & PYE. 
NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS. 



v9^/ 



1 



THE LEBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Cot^ii^a Received 

OCT, 16 1901 

Copyright entry 

CLASS CUXXCn No. 

COPY 3. 

n-i[ i I I ! ■ — i 






COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY 
JENNINGS A PYE. 



INTKODUCTIOE". 

The fact of God seems an original con- 
viction in the human mind, everywhere 
found. The sacred Scriptures nowhere at- 
tempt to prove or even assert this fact, but 
always recognize it as a matter of course ; 
an original conviction which only needs 
guidance in its use or abuse. Hence they 
abound in teachings regarding the ^^I Am," 
the ''true God,'' ''the living God,'' the eter- 
nal, almighty, all- wise, loving, and merci- 
ful God, the one, only God, as against the 
worship of false gods. 

The universality of this conviction, and 
3 



4 Introduction. 

of religion, has at times been questioned, 
but the most thorough investigation has 
refuted the ablest efforts to disprove its 
universality. There are no known tribes 
of men without religion, is the conclusion 
of scholarship. 

Mojiotheism is shown, by researches 
among the most ancient religions, to have 
been the original, at least the earliest known 
conception of Deity. The one God which 
the original and universal idea of the super- 
natural recognized was evidently the ob- 
ject of the most ancient worship. 

Polytheism was a degenerated form of 
religious belief and worship. It seems to 
have increased as men shifted from a de- 
vout fear of God toward nature worship, 
and made religion a convenience for thrift, 



Introduction. 5 

lust, or power. On the true principle that 
^^nothing but mind is power, and can act,'' 
men have generally attributed all action, 
which can not be thought that of human 
minds, to a superhuman mind. Polytheism 
rightly held this truth, but was astray in 
its application by attributing the different 
forms of superhuman action to different 
gods. Many minds, especially in modern 
times, revolting against this presidency of 
various gods over various classes of phe- 
nomena, swept to the other extreme, and 
claimed that various ^^natural laws," or 
^^natural forces,'' produce these various 
forms of action. They thereby attributed 
causal action to unconscious or material 
things. Natural laws or forces were 
thus installed, in their thinking, as agents 



6 Introdtjotion. 

acting according to ^^fixed laws/' ^^self-act- 
ing mechanism/' phrases which stand for 
no clear conception. Thus the real ques- 
tion, What is the force which originates 
action and assigns its laws? eluded their 
mental grasp. But, instead, they clung to 
formulae which expressed only the modes 
of its manifestation. 

As polytheistic conceptions bred super- 
stitions and vile excesses, mechanical con- 
ceptions have resulted in mental super- 
ficiality and moral stolidity; have invoked 
scientific pretense to justify human brutal- 
ization. The outcome of each is logically 
and historically like that of the other; 
namely, the ascendency of animalism over 
the spiritual nature in man. Even in a 
state of public sentiment, where no one 



Introduction. 7 

would be willing formally to deny the 
existence of God, the heart, which is de- 
bauched with the ascendency of the animal 
over the moral sensibilities, essentially im- 
plies such denial. The perverted, foolish 
heart implies ''There is no God." 

The vast perversion of heart which, in 
our day, finds so much in luxuriant living 
and conventional selfishness to flatter it, 
and in surface culture and scientific effort 
to apologize for it, needs a reminder from 
within to startle this heart-region with a 
reiteration of the fact of God. That the 
general belief, among men in all ages, in 
the existence of superhuman beings has 
been largely due to the effort to account 
for existing phenomena is doubtless true. 
And the evidences of design in the natural 



8 Introduction. 

world have largely influenced the belief 
in an intelligent first cause; but the felt 
convictions of the human soul have been 
greater, as they are deeper and more resist- 
less affirmations of God. Besides, in many 
minds the force of the ^ ^argument from de- 
sign" has been impaired by the show of 
plausibility which the teachings of "ma- 
terialistic evolution," aided by stupendous 
guessing, have made. However strong may 
be the "cosmic argument," the "teleolog- 
ical" and the "anthropological," we con- 
fess to finding greater satisfaction with the 
"ontological" considerations which deal 
with the facts and implications of being. 
And in our view the fact of Grod, which 
men can not get rid of, is rooted in these, 
while the other lines of argument are 



Introduction. 9 

simply corroborative. Hence, this book 
will consider, mainly, facts of heiiig, as also 
spiritual convictions arising from man's na- 
ture. 



CHAPTEE I 

THE FACT OF GOD. 

**J am, God! and surely Thou must be.'* 

— Dekzhavin. 

Facts are enacted realities. Truths in- 
clude, besides facts, the relations of facts 
and their inferences; but it is with facts, 
as distinguished from other forms of truth^ 
we would chiefly deal in this writing. 
Fact includes enacted realities, both per- 
ceived and implied. Facts which we di- 
rectly perceive imply other facts which we 
can not perceive, but which the mind recog- 
nizes, and which we must accept along with 

11 



12 The Fact of God. 

the perceived facts, and without which the 
latter can not be intelligible. Otherwise 
the perception must be surrendered, which 
is to surrender knowledge. 

Perceived facts are self-evident to our 
direct perception by either consciousness 
or the senses. Implied facts are self-evi- 
dently implied in the perceived facts, as 
either given tvith them or implied as their 
cause. For example, all human beings 
who have seen the moon have beheld but 
one and the same side of it. It was self- 
evident to their perception by the sense of 
sight. But the fact of the other side, which 
they have never seen, is equally self-evident 
to them by direct implication. That is 
to say, the other side is directly or neces- 
sarily given with the perception of this side. 



The Fact of God. 13 

The general fact, the moon, is the knowl- 
edge we gain by seeing one side of it. 
That knowledge includes, self-evidently, 
both sides — the one perceived, the other 
necessarily implied. 

But this side of the moon is not the 
cause of the other side. It is simply the 
perceived fact, which has the other side 
given with it, and we are just as sure of 
either side as of the other. 

Another form of implication is that of 
cause, or dependence, — the dependence of 
a perceived fact upon its cause, which cause 
may not be at all perceptible, yet is neces- 
sarily implied as the cause of the fact which 
is perceived. And as it is necessarily im- 
plied, it is a self-evident fact. For ex- 
ample, here are two bodies, the one liv- 



14 The Fact of God. 

ing, the other dead, so termed because mo- 
tion, the evidence of life, is perceived in 
one, but not in the other. But the per- 
ception of this evidence is not the percep- 
tion of the fact we term life. Life is the 
chief fact which differentiates the two 
bodies; but it is a fact which can not be 
perceived. It is an implied fact, which is 
self-evident, and must be accepted with the 
perceived facts, or these bodies can not be 
thought of as either living or dead. If it 
be not accepted, then the perceived mo- 
tions signify nothing as to life or death, 
and knowledge of such things must be given 
up. But such folly regarding life is not 
found among men, though it is often mani- 
fested regarding implied facts of another 
class. All recognize and act upon the im- 



The Fact of God. 15 

plied fact, life, though, it eludes perception 
armed with scalpel and microscope. All 
treasure it as antecedent to all that is pre- 
cious in its perceived manifestations. "A 
dog, living, is better than a lion, dead!'^ 

As thus recognized, life is not merely a 
quality, or a relation, or an inference, but 
an enacted reality or self-evident fact, im- 
plied in the beating pulse and heaving 
chest. The questions of whether and how 
pulse and breathing evince life are matters 
of relation and inference, but the thing, 
life, is thought as a fact. This implied fact 
is of far greater importance than the per- 
ceived facts which evince its presence; it 
is recognized as being the enacted reality 
on which they depend. Perceived facts are 
but the declarations of their implied mean- 



16 The Fact of Gob. 

ings, and are worthless for knowledge when 
isolated from them in thought. 

Implication is but a term which compre- 
hends all facts, relations, and inferences 
which must be thought in connection with 
admitted perceptions; hence, implied facts, 
as well as perceived ones, are essential data 
in practical affairs as well as in constructing 
a rational system; for data which we think 
and use as fact enter into our knowledge 
as fact with equal strength and validity 
whether they are perceived by conscious- 
ness or sense or come by implication. 
Physical science, which boasts its basis of 
fact, could not subsist as science, with all 
its store of perceived facts, but for its chief 
facty force, which is supplied only hy im- 
plication. Only by the facts which they 



The Fact of God. 17 

imply can perceived data be built into 
science. We may term them truths or 
principles, but it is our use of them as facts 
which enables us to construct the sciences. 
It can not be affirmed that in perceiving 
material objects we really perceive all their 
properties; nor can it be claimed that all, 
or even many, of the phenomena of mental 
operations are noted by consciousness. 
Enough, however, are perceived to enforce 
definite discrimination of one material or 
mental fact from others; hence, when it is 
said we perceive a fact, it is this definite 
discrimination which is meant, not a per- 
ception of all that a fact contains. And, 
in the case of implied facts, it is not claimed 
that they force upon our recognition more 
than what distinguishes them as definite facts. 



IB The Fact of God. 

These facts of implication may draw 
after them other^ even a whole train of 
implications, and so may give ns a well- 
defined conception of an object which is 
not, at any point, open to perception. 
Hence, there are objects conceived as well 
as objects perceived. The former may be 
greater in every way than the latter, but 
our apprehension of them can arise only in 
connection with what is perceived. 

Perception is knowing. A question upon 
which many differences have arisen among 
philosophers is this. What is perceived? 
Connected with this are the other ques- 
tions: What is necessarily implied in the 
things perceived? and what is merely ap- 
parent, or, at most, but possibly implied? 
It were a weary and worthless task to 



The Fact of God. 19 

point out all the theories which have been 
wrought from different views of these ques- 
tions; hence, it will not be attempted here. 
Let us be content with what all are com- 
pelled to admit, with what is, perforce, 
common ground; namely, this: we have 
within ourselves the direct perception of 
being. This much, at least, is reality. We 
do not have this direct perception of each 
other, but each for himself, alone, knows 
himself as being. He does from this per- 
ception infer that there are other beings, 
but he knows, positively and directly, one, 
and that is himself. He does not know 
how he can be as he is, but simply per- 
ceives directly that he is. This knowledge 
he can not deny. He does and must di- 
rectly perceive it; it is his perceiving self; 



20 The Fact of God. 

Tie perceives himself in the act of perceiving. 
He perceives himself as a perceiver. 

Sensational philosophy has tried to show 
that this self-conscious action results from 
sensations externally given. But this is 
an attempt to show how we are as we are, 
but it does not account for the fact of a 
perceiving agent, a perceiver by whom the 
sensations are known. At best, this 
philosophy can only locate the perceiver 
in the sensations, and thus require the sensa- 
tions to perceive themselves. But in this 
move it does not get rid of a conscious 
actor, or the reality of being. Besides, 
when the past and now impossible sensa- 
tions are, in memory, called up and re- 
flected upon, this philosophy shows no sen- 
sation to which this recollection and re- 



The Fact of God. 21 

flection can be attributed. The self-cen- 
tered being who consciously perceives sen- 
sation, recalls sense perceptions after the 
sensations have ceased, reflects upon them, 
often, acts emotionally and volitionally con- 
cerning them, and perceives himself as so 
acting, is the one being whom I directly 
know. Thus the fact of being comes to me 
as direct and unavoidable knowledge. It 
is the first, deepest, and broadest of per- 
ceived facts. 

This knowledge is knowledge of action — 
action which knows itself only in action. 
The act of knowing itself is consciousness, 
or self -perception. The absence of action 
is, hence, the absence of knowing, and, for 
aught I know, the absence of being. If 
there are beings without action I know 



22 The Fact of God. 

nothing of them, inasmuch as I know my- 
self only as acting, others by reaction and 
interaction, but have no evidence of my 
own or any other's being save action. 

Thus it is seen that the foundation of 
all my knowledge of reality is the fact of 
my individual action. Stripped of every- 
thing of which I can not know the reality, 
this stands out, a definite, conscious power. 
This is being, as perceived; or, being as 
each person in himself perceives the fact. 

The term "being" does not, then, stand 
for an abstraction which some have styled 
•^pure being.'' An abstraction is nothing, 
and nothing can come of it. An acting, 
perceiving, or determining thing can alone 
be a real thing. Self-perceiving action, 
conscious power, can in no way be ques- 



The Fact of God. 23 

tioned, avoided, or spirited away. Noth- 
ing but annihilation can rid me of it. All 
efforts to avoid or call it in question are 
only attempted relocations— relocations in 
sensations of assumed external origin. 

The science of being, ontology, properly 
begins with this kno^vn reality, and pro- 
ceeds to trace its implications and recognize 
the questions it raises. The mind, or soul, 
as I know it, is this conscious power, an 
acting unit. If asked, ^^What is mind-sub- 
stance ?'' the only answer I can give, or 
need to give, is. Power — that which acts. 
I confidently give this answer, because this 
power knows itself as action, knows itself 
as enacted reality, a constant fact. It is 
not worth while to ask one ^^how he knows 
he has a soul," for, of the few things it 



M The Fact of God. 

is impossible for him not to know, the chief 
is that he is a soul, and this nothing but 
annihilation^ non-being, can prevent his 
knowing. 

But there could be no science of being 
were this the only fact that could be known 
of being. For, when I attempt to think of 
only the fact, being, I am shut up to one 
view; namely, / am a self-existent being. 
Existence implies self -existence somewhere; 
and self-sustained being is a fact given in 
the perceived fact of being; and if I know 
nothing to the contrary I am that self- 
existent one. But when I think further, 
that a self -existent being must be inde- 
pendent, then I must infer that I am in- 
dependent. But I find, as a matter of fact, 
I am not independent, and, therefore, am 



The Fact of God. 26 

not self -existent. So thought is confounded 
and brought to naught unless other facts 
of being may be known. Such knowledge, 
to be valid for me, must come in the con- 
scious action which I know as myself; 
hence, I search myself for further facts. 

TJie natui^ej as well as the fact, of the 
being whom I know, and each knows for 
himself, is also given in our conscious 
action; that is to say, we are conscious of 
an order of action in our being. This 
order is what I recognize as the nature 
of the actor, myself. For example, I know 
myself as acting in self -perceiving, in sense- 
perceiving, in reasoning, feeling, intending, 
choosing, doing, etc. ; hence, I say it is my 
nature to perceive, reason, feel, will, do. 
Moreover, I know that in most, if not all 



26 The Fact of God. 

of these classes, or orders, my action is lim- 
ited^ and hence know that I am not only 
a causal power, but know that this order 
and limitation are imposed upon my actions, 
giving me the knowledge that I am de- 
pendent — dependent upon conditions. 

The persons may be few who logically 
define or describe this nature. Its various 
classes of action may not be clearly or 
similarly traced by different thinkers; 
nevertheless, all men alike have these 
classes of action, and know themselves as 
thus acting, and equally well experience 
the conditions which limit their action. 
Doubtless, all men equally well know them- 
selves as limited, dependent. 

Dependent being is the reality which I 
perceive. That there must have been a 



The Fact of God. 27 

time when I did not exist; that there are 
places where I do not and can not exist; 
that I can not perceive anything except 
as conditioned by time or space; that my 
knowledge is limited to action within my- 
self and what is presented to me by sensa- 
tion; that my volitions are carried out by 
means of reaction and interaction with 
forces external to me, which condition 
their efficiency, I am forced to recognize 
in my knowledge of my own being. Limi- 
tation is as surely known to me as being. 

The order of my action, termed my na- 
ture, gives me, first, self -perception, or con- 
sciousness. This fixes my knowledge of 
individual identity. This individual iden- 
tity abides unmoved through all the 
changes of feeling and thought which I 



28 The Fact of God. 

undergo, and all the varied sense-percep- 
tions and volitions I perform. Whatever 
changes have taken place in my physique, 
actions, feelings, or states of knowledge, 
this has remained unchanged. My deepest, 
clearest, and permanent perception of my 
being is as an individual unit. 

I perceive, also, in what is termed sense- 
perception, that there are activities, or 
forces, other than mine which affect me — 
that change my states of knowledge and 
modify my feelings and activities. These 
give sharp discrimination to myself as lim- 
ited by externality. Externality as here 
recognized is not an empty abstraction, such 
as the "non-ego'^ of Fichte, or the ^^not-me'' 
of certain other writers, but forces which 
impose upon me the knowledge of reaction 



The Fact of God. 29 

and interaction — knowledge that I am 
acted upon. 

In some classes of my action I know my- 
self as simply recognizing and interpreting, 
but not originating tlie action recognized. 
For example, consciousness, or self-percep- 
tion, is but a recognition of the fact, my 
being; but the action which establishes and 
maintains the conditions of my being I do 
not perceive; it is not my action. I only 
perceive its effects in affording the con- 
ditions upon which my action arises. In 
sense-perception my action is simply recog- 
nizing and interpreting sensations of sight, 
sound, odor, taste, and touch. In reason 
I compare perceptions, note their likenesses 
and differences, and draw conclusions from 
such comparison. The act of comparing 



30 The Fact of God. 

is my act, but tlie action which gives like- 
ness and difference to the things perceived, 
and fixes the forms in which I must know 
and compare them, is independent of me. 
In like manner the sense of moral author- 
ity is imposed upon me, sometimes much 
against my desire, yet my action regard- 
ing its rise within me is but that of recog- 
nition and interpretation. In all these 
modes of action I know myself as but recog- 
nizing and interpreting that which I do 
not posit or cause. Thus my nature is 
known by me as a self-evident effedy de- 
pendent upon forces which evince them- 
selves as other than I who recognize and 
interpret them. 

It is not claimed here that my inter- 
pretation of externality discovers the nature 



The Fact of God. 31 

of the external, but simply the fact of its 
existence. But this fact is as directly 
known in my acts of recognition and in- 
terpretation as the fact of my being. The 
interpreting act is part of my action ; and 
the fact that I know this action is merely 
recognition and interpretation, fixes upon 
me the knowledge that I am in interaction 
with and dependent upon some external 
action which founds and environs me; 
hence, I know my nature is that of an 
individual^ hut dependent poiver. 

But, although the knowledge of myself 
is that of a dependent power, it alone gives 
me the general fact of existence. And it 
is impossible to take up the thought of 
existence without implying self-existence. 
^OT do I derive this implied fact only as 



32 The Fact of God. 

an inference from my own causal power, 
but it is directly given in the perceived fact 
of being; just as the fact of the other side 
of the moon — which man has never seen — 
is given in our perception of this side. The 
side we see is not the cause of the other 
side, nor caused by it, but is the perceived 
fact which it is impossible to think of with- 
out implying the fact of the other side. 
This side is a self-evident fact by percep- 
tion; the other a self-evident fact by neces- 
sary implication. 

But an apparent discrepancy arises now 
between two perceived facts ; namely, being 
and dependent beings to the atheist an im- 
passable gulf. But this discrepancy dis- 
appears as soon as we observe the implica- 
tions of these facts severally, I can not 



The Fact of Gou 33 

"by any possibility entertain the general 
idea of existence without including in that 
idea a self-existent energy. Self-sustained 
existence is necessarily given in the general 
fact of existence. My direct knowledge of 
my being is that of simple self-existence, 
but it is contradicted by the further per- 
ception of my dependent nature. 

The implied fact of self -existence can not 
be gotten rid of any more than the implied 
fact of the other side of the moon, although 
I find by my dependence that I am not 
self -existent. I must concede action some- 
where which exists of itself and founds its 
own order of action. The self-perceived 
being, myself, whom I know as dependent, 
does not satisfy the fact of self-existence 
which is given with it. Though all limited 
3 



34 The Fact of God. 

beings stand alongside me, each knowing 
himself an acting reality, and though the 
number were indefinitely multiplied and 
the reality of their existence demonstrated 
to me, with the whole dependent universe 
added, yet all these fail to fill out the 
thought or supply the self-evident fact of 
self -existence which it is impossible to drop 
from the perceived fact of existence. Thus, 
though the being, myself, whom I directly 
perceive is dependent, the general fact of 
being, thus known, is impossible to thought 
without independence. The fact of inde- 
pendenty or self-existent^ heing is self-evi- 
dently given with my direct perception of 
the fact of heing. 

But the fact of dependence has its im- 
plied demands. Not only have I perceived 



The Fact of God. 35 

the fact of being, but I perceive the fact 
that I am dependent. When the fact of 
my being is modified by the fact of de- 
pendence the question of the cause of my 
dependent existence is raised, and by the 
law of reason which demands a cause for 
every change I am forced to recognize a 
self-existent, or independent, power as the 
cause which gives rise to the fact of de- 
pendent being. The fact of my being is 
seen to be impossible without its depend- 
ence upon an independent being. Thus 
these two perceived facts, heing and de- 
pendencey severally, compel the recognition 
of independent action, or being. The first 
implies it as a fact given in the perception 
of being, as the perception of one side of 
an object carries with it the fact of the 



36 The Fact of God. 

other side. The second by necessary in- 
ference, inasmuch as dependent existence 
must imply an independent cause upon 
which it depends. 

There is no difficulty in thinking of self- 
existence, when once the fact of any exist- 
ence is perceived ; it can not be avoided. We 
can not get rid of it. The real difficulty 
is to think how any being came to be. This 
^^how'^ is impossible for us to solve, for 
the reason that, like the ^^how'^ of all bot- 
tom facts, it is outside the limits of human 
inquiry. But, however impossible it is to 
know how being is, the fact that it isy is 
the most unquestionable of all facts. 

A bright young girl in Sunday-school 
said to her teacher, "Somehow I do not 
get hold of the idea of an independent, or 
self -existent, being.'' 



The Fact of God. 37 

The teacher replied, ^^Yoii are perfectly 
sure of your own existence ?^^ 

^^I certainly am/^ 

^'You are sure you are a dependent 
being?" 

^^Yes, surely/' 

'^Can you get hold of the idea of the 
dependence of all being?'' 

^'No; it is impossible." 

^^Then, being must be independent some- 
where?" 

^'Yes, certainly, I see the fact of being 
must, somewhere, stand alone, and that 
must be independent being." 

^^Then, having the fact of being, given 
in your own being, it can not be doubted; 
and the implied fact of independent being, 
which can not be separated from it, is 
equally free from doubt?" 



38 The Fact of God. 

"Yes, I see the fact of independent being 
is given in the simple fact of being, which 
I perceive in myself/^ 

"But, a little further. You say you are 
certain you are a dependent being ?'^ 

"I certainly am." 

"How do you know that fact?" 

"I perceive it in my nature." 

"But can you think of dependence with- 
out implying an independent upon which 
it finally depends?" 

"I can not." 

"Then you perceive two distinct facts, 
heing and dependence^ in each of which ap- 
pears the fact of independent being. In 
the first it is directly given, in the second 
implied as a cause." 

That I can not perceive the independent 



The Fact of Gob. 39 

actor is nothing as against the fact of such, 
actor. I am unable to perceive any actor 
but myself. Hence, the implied fact of an 
independent being is not placed in doubt 
by my inability to perceive it. But, on the 
other hand, the implied fact, independent 
being, is all that can be thought from the 
two perceived facts; namely, my being and 
my dependence. Nor can either of these 
perceived facts be thought any more than 
the two jointly, without implying indepen- 
dent being as a third fact. This I must 
accept, or strangle thought at its birth. 

To a theistic conclusion the line of 
thought from this point is short, direct, and 
decisive. The perceived fact, being, and 
the perceived fact, dependent being, both 
imply the fact of an independent being; in- 



40 The Fact of G 



OD. 



dependent being is perfectly self-determin- 
ing; self-determination is personality; and 
perfect, or independent, self-determination 
is perfect, or infinite, personality; hence, 
the independent is the perfect, infinite, or 
unconditioned person, God. 

This is not claimed to be a demonstra- 
tion; but is the implied fact of God as the 
only view possible to thought; and since it 
shuts us up to the alternative of accepting 
the fact of God or wholly renouncing 
thought, it has all the argumentative force 
of demonstration. We must resign thought 
and play the fool if we say there is no 
God. 

The atheist can adduce no evidence to 
prove there is no God, but he queries, What 
is the origin of God? But this is not the 



The Fact of God. 41 

whole question. The real question is, 
''How does being come to exist V^ To this 
question of liow, human thought can give 
no answer; yet the fact of being is the first, 
largest, and surest of all facts — a fact which 
we all perceive. This perceived fact has 
in it the implied fact which can not be 
gotten rid of, and mthout which the per- 
ceived fact of being is totally unintelligible; 
namely, that being is in some way self- 
existent, independent. I perceive the gen- 
eral fact, being, in perceiving myself, and 
this general fact can not be thought except 
as self-existent; yet it must be accepted 
because perceived — a Jcnown fact. 

As being is at some point or in some 
mode self -existent, it is independent; that 
is, unconditioned — and hence perfectly self- 



42 The Fact of God. 

determined. Perfect self-determination is 
infinite freedom, infinite self-determina- 
tion; and this is an infinite person. 

Hence, atheism is not a question for de- 
bate. It has no standing ground in 
thought, but is renunciation of thought. 
Between the theist and the atheist the ques- 
tion must be, Thought or no thought — 
reason or folly? Thought, contemplating 
the fact, being, has self-existent, independ- 
ent being on its hands. The only way to 
get rid of it is to resign thought, abnegate 
reason. 

Agnosticism is the rejection of theism 
because God, as God, is not perceived by 
our senses. The blunder of agnosticism is 
in looking for this fact in the range of 
sense-perception instead of in the realm of 



The Fact of God. 43 

implied fact. It overlooks that God is 
an unavoidably implied fact, forced upon 
reason by the perceived fact of being, and 
al^o by the perceived fact of dependence. 

It is objected: ^^You assume a self -ex- 
istent God. Why may we not assume, in- 
stead, the eternal existence of matter^ and 
that, in the long aeons of duration dis- 
turbances have arisen, by chemical influ- 
ences, originating action^ or generating 
force, which, in succeeding aeons, have 
evolved all present existing forces and phe- 
nomena?'' We answer: This adroitly-put 
query is made up of one false statement 
and five groundless assumptions, all making 
an unthinkable proposition. The false 
statement is that we assume God merely 
to account for existing phenomena. This 



44 The Fact of God. 

is incorrect. This writer assumes nothing, 
and will accept nothing based upon as- 
sumption, but is compelled, by perceived 
facts and the requirements of reason, to 
accept God. The five ^ ^groundless as- 
sumptions" are: (1) The eternal existence 
of matter; (2) That matter is substance, or 
stuff; (3) That disturbance by chemical 
influences did or could arise in dead matter; 
(4) That these disturbances could originate 
action or create force; (5) That such ac- 
tion could evolve forces and phenomena 
not originally in it, especially life, self- 
consciousness, self-determination, abstract 
ideas, and conscience. Further, the whole 
proposition is impossible to thought, for the 
reason that matter is dependent, hence can 
not be thought as self-existent. That a de- 



The Fact of God. 45 

pendent thing or person can be self-ex- 
istent is a contradiction. 

Again it is suggested: If we assume the 
eternal existence of matter and forcCy can 
we not account for all existing entities, 
forces, and phenomena? Yes; but to as- 
sume a force adequate to the case is to 
assume the independent actor identical with 
the God of theology, termed bj Spencer 
the "Unknowable;" that is, undiscoverable 
by physical science. 

Pantheism is not so readily disposed of, 
for the reason that it has apparently more 
ground than atheism or agnosticism upon 
which to stand. This is because pantheism 
seems implied in the fact of self-existence, 
which is given in the general fact of being 
perceived in myself, until I perceive that 



46 The Fact of Gob. 

I am a dependent power; other than that 
upon which I depend. Th© burden rests 
upon the theist to show this. It must ap- 
pear that to God my action is objective, 
external, and this appears in my conscious- 
ness of individual personal identity, and of 
forming my intentions. 

Objection has been made to the idea of 
an infinite person. Spinoza first, in modern 
times, and finally Matthew Arnold, ad- 
vanced the criticism that the infinite is 
limited by regarding it as personal; that is, 
personality is necessarily finite, limited. 
But this is an oversight in this class of 
thinkers, an oversight which comes of re- 
garding the infinite as the aggregate of all 
things. This is the same as supposing there 
can be an infinite quantity, which suppo- 



The Fact of God. 47 

sition is^ of course, absurd, and a contra- 
diction in terms. Quantity is identical with 
limitation, and to speak of an infinite made 
up of limited things is but a contradiction 
in terms. 

Another oversight into which these emi- 
nent thinkers have fallen is in regarding 
personality as quantitative. Their charge 
of anthropomorphism and f etichism against 
theists is because they suppose personality 
to consist in certain defined limits, per- 
sonal organization, physical or mental. 
Anthropomorphism, the conceiving of God 
as a man on a large or infinite scale, is cer- 
tainly a fatal notion in theology or philos- 
ophy when the personality of either God 
or man is supposed to consist in quantita- 
tive dimensions or qualitative degrees. 



4:8 The Fact of God. 

Fetichism, the attributing life or persona) 
identity to material objects, orgaixic or in- 
organic, comes of the same quantitative 
idea of personality. N^or is there any rad- 
ical change in the idea as it exists in the 
mind of the child who strides the chair for 
throwing him dov/n: the Bushman, who 
worships his ^^gree-gree;'' the pantheist, 
who has the cosmos for his God; or the 
agnostic, who rejects a personal infinite lest 
personality may impose quantitative limita- 
tions upon the infinite. We can discrim- 
inate the infinite only as unconditioned 
action, absolute freedom. So, also, person- 
ality is not a quantity nor an organization 
of quantities; not a quality nor a collection 
of qualities, subject to degrees; but is 
purely a matter of original action. Size, 



The Fact of God. 49 

weight, form, or physical organization can 
not make man a person. Neither does 
thought nor feehng. He may have all 
these, and still be a mere animal or ma- 
chine, if all his qualities are determined 
in kind and degree for him by some other 
power. But it is because man determines 
himself, in certain respects, that he is en- 
titled a person. He can surmount and 
throw off many of his limitations, if he 
choose, or can impose upon himself other 
or greater limitations; but in either case 
he originates his choice, and initiates the 
process by which he is determined upw^ard 
or downward in the scale of limitations. 
He alone forms his intentions. He may 
intend injury to others, but may be re- 
strained from effecting such injury; yet he 
4 



50 The Fact of God. 

affects and degrades himself by such in- 
tentions, which none else can prevent. He 
may develop or abuse his qualities of mind 
and body, and thus elevate or degrade his 
nature, while his free choice either way 
determines his character. That character, 
good or bad, reacts favorably or unfavor- 
ably upon his natural qualities, and so gives 
them higher uses or deeper abuses, as he 
may decide. Because of self-determination, 
man forms a character; and character is 
made up of those qualities, so determined, 
upon which men estimate human worth. 

Again, progress is that which is attained 
by individuals and communities, by compar- 
ing simple facts, and from these drawing 
conclusions. These conclusions, in turn, 
are compared, and from this comparison 



The Fact of God. 51 

higher conclusions are drawn and acted 
upon. So sciences are built, governments 
are constructed and improved, culture is 
amplified, and progress in every way 
achieved by man's self-chosen use of him- 
self and his environment, and his self-de- 
termining power to transcend his ele- 
mentary conditions. Being a person, he is 
capable of rising from the limitations of 
savagery to the less limiting conditions of 
refinement; being a person, he can abuse 
the enhanced advantages of refinement, and 
thereby bring upon himself the limitations 
of a brute. 

Self-determination is personality. A 
mere thing which is determined in all re- 
spects by action external to it, as a grain 
of sand, a block of wood, or a graven image. 



53 The Fact of God. 

is wholly without personality. Brutes, be- 
ing but creatures of impulse, volitionally, 
never devoting themselves to self -improve- 
ment, nor deemed blameworthy for lack 
of such devotement, likewise fall short of 
personality. Person is distinguished from 
thing or brute in being able to determine 
himself to be this or that in any or all 
respects. I am free to form my intentions 
and determine my character, but am lim- 
ited in resources from which to contrive or 
gain objects concerning which to choose 
and intend; and also limited in my instru- 
mentalities by which to realize intentions. 
But these limitations are simply like hedges 
around my personality; merely limited re- 
sources and instruments. In the use of 
such resources and instruments as I have 



The Fact of God. 53 

1 am arbiter. In this respect I am free; 
without limit in the freedom of choice. 

Personal consciousness resides in self-de- 
termination. Hence, I am a person, and 
realize my personality, not in degrees and 
quantities, but in actual freedom in certain 
respects. But I am not a perfect or in- 
finite person for these reasons; namely, I 
am dependent for my existence ; I have not 
determined my own nature; have not ad- 
justed my environment, and am dependent 
upon forces external to me for my inter- 
action with all that is external to my con- 
scious power. In these respects I am an 
effect, and hence, a dependent, or finite, 
person. An infinite person is thought as 
one who determines himself in all respects; 
his nature, character, and choice of environ- 



54 The Fact of God. 

ment are dependent in no respect. Inde- 
pendent action, or unconditioned action, 
however it may be phrased, is perfect, or 
infinite, self-determination; and since self- 
determination is personality, infinite self- 
determination is infinite personality. 

That independent action is unconditioned 
action is axiomatic. That the independent 
is an infinite person is the same as to say 
he is the unconditioned person. He has 
no characteristic of an effect other than 
what is self-imposed. Whatever he is, he 
is by his own self-determination, limited by 
no pre-existing conditions or principles. We 
hear, sometimes, of ^^etemal principles;" 
but there are no such things apart from 
the action of the Infinite Being. A prin- 



The Fact of God. 55 

ciple is nothiing but an order or relation in 
actions established by the actor; without 
action or actor the principle vanishes. 

Moreover, we can discriminate nothing 
as infinite except self -determining power, 
nothing unconditioned but freedom, and all 
talk of anything being infinite except self- 
determining action and its qualities is but 
a jumbling of terms — a use of the word 
"infinite'' in merely the sense of "in- 
definite." The infinite can not be pictured 
to our imagination, nor in any way grasped 
by our minds, except by logically discrim- 
inating it as an independent actor, the per- 
sonal infinite. It is, therefore, impossible 
to think of independent action as other than 
personal self-determination, of primary be- 
ing as other than the Infinite Person. 



56 The Fact of God. 

We close this chapter with this theistic 
formula: 

Perceived dependent being unavoid- 
ably implies independent being. 

Independent being is infinitely self-de- 
termining. 

Self-determination is personality, and in- 
finite self-determination is infinite person- 
ality. 

Hence, the perceived fact, my depend- 
ent being, unavoidably implies the Infinite 
Person, God. 

''I am^ O God! cmd surety Thou must 
he.'' 



CHAPTEE II. 

THE SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION 
OF GOD. 

**If the light that is in thee be darkness, how 
great is that darkness !'' 

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall 
see God." — Jesus. 

Mankind are slow to realize that mind^ 
soul, spirit, is all there is of this world 
that is of intrinsic worth. We are prone 
to estimate value by the standard of dol- 
lars and cents; size, by acres and sections; 
personal importance, by personal physique 
or circumstance ; and success, by office and 

emolument. Pleasure is sought in the ob- 

57 



58 The Fact of God. 

jects of sense, life is deemed honorable ac- 
cording to popular appreciation, and power 
is expected to leap from the bosom of pomp 
and bluster. The rise and fall of nations 
are credited to conquerors and kings, and 
the puppets in the foreground are wreathed 
and crowned as masters of the drama. 

But why seek the living among the dead? 
What are value, size, greatness, or success 
but the mind's imperial balances in which 
it weighs the worlds? What is pleasure 
but the soul's smile bestowed upon the ma- 
terial universe as it fawns at the footstool 
of mental majesty? And what is power 
but the spirit's mandate which the external 
leaps to obey? The rise and fall of nations 
are but incidents of the varying strife 
which rages upon the battlefields of mind. 



Spiritual Perception of God. 59 

and peoples weep or shout as a conquering 
thought sweeps the field. 

It is not only to open the dark sayings 
of prophecy, or to divine the signs of times, 
but to know our race and understand the 
lessons of history that we must inquire in 
the temple of mind. To perceive the na- 
ture and magnitude of the mighty contro- 
versy between good and evil we must realize 
that God is a Person, and, for their good, 
seeks persons to worship him. Doubtless 
it was with this view that the greatest of 
preachers declared, "If the light that is in 
thee be darkness, how great is that dark- 
ness!" 

Human knowledge in its largest classifi- 
cation is of two origins, external and in- 
ternal. External knowledge comprehends 



60 The Fact of God. 

all that we learn. The sources from which 
we learn it are four — the testimony of the 
senses, history, revelation, and the deduc- 
tions of reason. Internal knowledge com- 
prehends all our knowledge which we do 
not learn. This knowledge is bom in us, 
and arises as the activities of our nature 
may call it into use. Then it is directly 
perceived by consciousness, and because di- 
rectly perceived it is termed untaught or 
intuitional knowledge. Since it is born in 
us and spontaneously arises within us, as 
occasion may offer, it is universal — all man- 
kind have it; and it is uniform — ^all have 
it alike. 

But, to be more explicit, let us consider 
the leading facts contained in this inner 
knowledge: First, you are conscious of your 



Spiritual Perception of God. 61 

own being. You knew this fact before you 
knew any one who could inform you of it. 
'No one taught it you. It is the first fact 
of inner knowledge. Next to this fact, you 
perceive you are an individual, a unit; that 
you are not two or more persons, nor part 
of another person, but one self -discriminat- 
ing individual. This is the direct percep- 
tion of personal identity, conscious indi- 
viduality. It is the fact of individual self- 
consciousness which renders mankind un- 
able to find rest in pantheism — the doc- 
trine that would have us believe that we 
are parts of God, and that God and the uni- 
verse are all one. This fact, that we are 
each an individual being, is the rock upon 
which the craft of pantheism strikes and 
goes to the bottom. 



62 The Fact of God. 

A third untaught but directly perceived 
fact is that of dependence — dependence 
upon other persons, forces, and things, 
which make possible our being and all its 
conditions. This fact brings with it the 
fact of an independent, self-existent being 
uj)on whom we depend. This fact, along 
with that of existence, as we saw in chap- 
ter first, renders it impossible to think one 
step further without accepting the fact of 
the independent person, God. This is the 
rock upon which the craft of atheism and 
agnosticism strikes and goes to the bottom. 

A fourth fact which we have known 
without teaching, and have practiced until 
some external restraint prevented an ex- 
ternal demonstration of it, is what we term 
forming or originating intentions. This is 



Spiritual Perception of God. 63 

termed willing, or intendingj or choosing. 
However feeble the body, or restrained by 
outer persons or forces, we always feel that 
our inner intention is free. We intend 
as we please, whether we are able or not 
to carry it into external practice. This 
fact of freedom of intention is termed 
our will — a fact of which all are intuitively 
aware. It prevents mankind from resting 
content in the doctrines of necessitarian- 
ism^ — doctrines which, like pantheism, 
would shirk personal responsibility. This 
inner fact of individual freedom of in- 
tentions, choosing this or that of several 
motives, and consciously able to choose the 
contrary, is the rock against which the craft 
of necessitarianism strikes and goes to the 
bottom. 



64 The Fact of God. 

A fifth fact of inner knowledge is that 
of a moral distinction between our inten- 
tions; that is, intending to be or do right 
or intending wrong. Mistaken judgment, 
which may lead to disastrous results, does 
not afifect one's character; but wrong in- 
tention does, even when not permitted to 
produce external results. Hence, this fact 
of moral distinction in the intentions under- 
lies what we term character, and is the 
foundation of all government. 

But it is vastly emphasized by another 
fact closely related to it; namely, a cer- 
tain authority which makes us feel that we 
ought always to intend right. One may not 
be blameworthy for judging wrongly or 
thinking inaccurately, yet we always feel, 
and we hold each other guilty for intend- 



Spiritual Perception of God. 65 

iiig wrong. This authority does not and 
can not compel us to intend right. Nor 
can any power. But if we disobey this 
moral authority, we experience self-degra- 
dation and feel blameworthy. And we see 
that, for ourselves and all others, the only 
method of a blameless life and a noble 
character is that of constant obedience to 
this moral authority which spontaneously 
stands present to the consciousness of every 
sane human being. This is ordinarily 
termed "conscience," sometimes "moral 
sense," or, with the great philospher Kant, 
"the moral imperative." But no account 
of it has changed its nature from the two 
simple facts; namely, the simple inner 
sense and the independent authority which 
urges upon that sense its unvarying insist- 
5 



66 The Fact of God. 

ence upon righteousness and condemnation 
of evil. The most perfect human ear could 
not hear if there were no atmosphere, nor 
eye see without light; nor could the most 
sensitive soul feel the authority of moral 
obligation if there were no God. 

Here, then, in the human conscience we 
come upon the independent, just as, in the 
domain of being, we come upon the self- 
existent, and, in the realm of reason, the 
independent support of all dependent being. 
We have needed no argumentation to prove 
the fact of God. We can not get rid of 
him. All the argumentation against him 
has failed to crumble this invincible fact. 
As in Chapter I we saw that we must re- 
sign thought if we would be rid of this 
great fact, so, here, we must sink into utter 



Spikitual Perception of God. 67 

brutality if we would be rid of the inde- 
pendent conservator of moral responsibil- 
ity. Here is the independent moral force 
which maintains the authority for righteous 
intention in each person, and has been the 
conservator of righteousness throughout 
human history, notwithstanding the uni- 
versal selfishness, treachery, and debase- 
ment of our race. 

It is not imposed upon men by men; not 
by the body, the desires, the reason, or 
institutions of man. These may all be cor- 
rupted. Physical appetite and passion may 
be besotted, the affections of the heart de- 
based, the reason bribed and perverted into 
the defense and belief of delusions and lies, 
but the conscience stands, in the midst of 
all this chaos of our nature, grim, pure, 



68 The Fact of God. 

persistent, independent — the one undeviat- 
ing protestor against unrighteousness, as 
such, and the incorruptible, independent 
witness for holiness. No man, however 
foul his affections or perverted his judg- 
ment, ever brought himself to feel it his 
duty to be a bad man. 

This independent moral force insists upon 
cur being our best selves — not second best, 
but best. Hence, it is a call to all our 
knowledge and rational powers to form the 
best conception of what we ought to be and 
become. Such best conception is what is 
termed our ideal self, and conscience says 
we ought to bring our practical self up 
to the standard of this ideal self. And if 
we do this, or approximate it, we will make 
such a gain in moral strength and in en- 



Spiritual Perception of God. 69 

largement of conceptions and elevated as- 
piration that our conception of what we 
ought to be and become will be enlarged, 
elevated, and chastened. And conscience 
will continue to urge our bringing our- 
selves up to this advanced ideal self. Thus 
the independent authority in us makes the 
ideal self the standard of the ordering and 
growth of the actual man. But I may 
picture to myself an ideal manhood to 
which I would gladly measure up in prac- 
tice, like the Stoics; but I could feel no 
obligation to measure up to it, nor con- 
demnation for neglect or failure to actual- 
ize it, if actual perfection exists nowhere, 
nor is nowhere accessible to my knowledge. 
And men would never dream of actualiz- 
ing an ideal self — leading a strictly right- 



70 The Fact of God. 

eous life — but for the fact that its demand 
is pushed upon the conscience of each one 
of them by the actualized perfect one who 
provides the conditions of their dependent 
being. This moral imperative arises in the 
structure of the human soul v^ithout giv- 
ing any account of itself other than that 
it is the sentiment of that independent action 
which posits and maintains in men the con- 
ditions to their self-perfecting. Because 
of his actual perfection he alone is in the 
position to impose upon all finite souls what 
ought to be their self-determining inten- 
tions. And this sense of "oughtness" which 
conditions our intentions is but the pres- 
ence of the Perfect One. We are, and 
can not but be, imperfect in all respects 
save one, that of intentions. In this we 



Spiritual Perception of God, 71 

may, and conscience says we ought to be 
perfect. It is the authoritative sentiment 
of perfect intention evincing in us the 
actual perfection of the Being upon whom 
our being depends. 

While St. John declares, ^^No man hath 
seen God at any time," yet an accommo- 
dated "presence" of the Deity is evinced 
by the one unmistakable characteristic; 
namely, independence. Whether, as with 
"cherubim and infolding flame," or en- 
veloping the bush "which was not con- 
sumed;" moving or resting as the mercy- 
seat and Shekinah ; teaching, working, lay- 
ing down life and taking it up again at 
will, with Jesus of Nazareth, or holding 
an invincible sentiment of righteousness 
present in every human conscience, he is 



73 The Fact of God. 

the unmistakable Independent. Our free- 
dom of intention is conditioned by tbis in- 
dependent sentiment, which, though it may 
be neglected or temporarily ignored, can 
not be corrupted or abolished as can other 
conditions. It imposes the obligation of 
moral purity upon human intentions 
wherein those intentions pertain to self-de- 
termination, and imposes altruistic benevo- 
lence wherein our intentions pertain to 
other beings. 

To sum up, it is independent in that it 
can not be corrupted or modified. It is 
authoritative in that it imposes the author- 
ity of the ideal upon the actual. It is 
wholly moral in that it does not compel 
obedience, and pertains solely to the moral 
quality of intentions. It is practical in that 



Spiritual Perception of God. 73 

personal innocence^ if obeyed, guilt, if dis- 
obeyed, result from its moral demands. It 
is holy in tbat it prompts to perfect inten- 
tion . It is benevolent in that it prompts each 
to benevolence towards others. It is iden- 
tical with the altruistic spirit in God in that it 
prompts to holiness and benevolence of in- 
tention in both self -determining and object- 
ive action. It is the "Holy Spirit/' in that 
harmony with its prompting implies the 
perfecting of individual character and the 
perfecting of the personal universe. Its 
authority is independent because it is the 
self-sustained sentiment of perfect being. 
It is the sentiment of God, the absolute 
imperative for all eternity. 

It is this fact, the Independent Presence 
in conscience, which makes it impossible 



74 The Fact of God. 

for mankind to find rest in those forms 
of liberalism which would have ns indif- 
ferent to the behests of moral obligation, 
and hope for eternal happiness without 
moi'al regeneration. , This fact, which holds 
us directly responsible to God for our in- 
tentions and character, is the rock against 
which the craft of liberalism strikes and 
goes to the bottom. 

Thus it is seen that all thorough moral- 
ity — thorough because having an inde- 
pendent basis, and therefore affording a gen- 
uine standard of reform — and all true re- 
ligion — true because worshiping only the 
perfect and finding communion with the 
independent — take their rise in the great 
intuitional truths which are self-evident 
to all minds alike. Atheism, pantheism, 



Spiritual Perception of God, 76 

agnosticism, necessitarianism, and liberal- 
ism, and their numerous subisms, are 
^^fixed-up,'' chosen beliefs; plausibilities 
produced by minds who are either essen- 
tially superficial, or have not thought their 
problems through, or have a chosen prac- 
tice or theory to defend, or human specu- 
lations relying upon external learning — 
which must always be fragmentary — but all 
uniting in a common end; namely, to ab- 
solve men from responsibility to God for 
the purity of their motives, the rectitude 
of their intentions. And what more con- 
venient way is there to do this than to 
get rid of God? But human opinions 
change, external learning shifts its con-^ 
stantly accumulating data, and speculative 
or chosen beliefs follow each other rapidly 



y6 The Fact of God. 

to the tombs of dead issues, while the old 
truths, which all men know and feel, con- 
tinue to hold each person individually re- 
sponsible for his intentions and character 
on the changeless basis of the independent 
God; continue to afford the only known 
foundation for government of any kind, or 
a sufficient reason for distinguishing be- 
tween good and bad men, or for commend- 
ing the one or condemning the other. 

There is a way by which men may evade 
the force of these great subjective facts. 
I^Tot by canceling them, for that is self-de- 
struction; not by perverting or corrupting 
them, for that is impossible; but by divert- 
ing their attention from them by means of 
absorption in other and external pursuits. 
As one may acquire the habit of ignoring 



Spiritual Perception of God. 77 

the roar of Niagara by fixing attention 
upon other things, so he may, by the con- 
stant attention to the business, pleasures, 
and cares of life, ignore the behest of con- 
science; or, by a life of mllful transgres- 
sion, harden his feelings against it. But 
Niagara roars on, and any circumstance 
that may direct the attention to its roar 
will make it seem as loud as ever. So, 
also, conscience is not dead nor asleep, but 
when circumstances shall direct attention 
to its demands, its authoritative sentiment 
of righteousness will be as independent and 
incorruptible as ever. ^^God is not 
mocked!" 

We see in this region of intuitional truth 
the conditions upon which faith spon- 
taneously arises. Seeing I am a person, 



78 The Fact of God, 

conscious that I exist distinct from all other 
beings, free to form my intentions and thus 
determine my character, doing this in the 
presence of the independent Spirit of God, 
who stands present to my moral sense, I 
decide to acquiesce in the righteous senti- 
ment of God's Spirit, which holds I ought 
to intend and do righteously. I thus rely 
upon these inner facts, especially the moral 
imperative, and project my daily life ac- 
cordingly. This reliance is faith — faith in 
God — and he who thus orders his life is 
said to "walk by faith.'^ 

Or I may find, by knowledge of external 
affairs, that I can acquire great wealth, be- 
come famous, or have much pleasure by 
being dishonest, ambitious of worldly 
honor, or devoted to sinful indulgence. I 



Spiritual Perception of God. 79 

decide to take this course, and, though I 
feel the condemnation of God in my con- 
science, I persist in it. This has been termed 
^^walking by sight/^ Thus we see that 
faith arises upon our intuitional knowledge 
of the independent, and guides our life to- 
ward results that shall demonstrate its valid- 
ity by corroborating the truths from which 
it arises. The most majestic characters in 
history have illustrated its power to give 
strength and moral purity to the human 
spirit, notwithstanding their disadvantages 
of limited learning. 

Hypothesis is something assumed to be 
true, and by that assumption accounting 
for, or explaining, something which can not 
otherwise be explained. For example. Sir 
Isaac Newton assumed the law of the at- 



80 The Fact of God. 

traction of gravitation, and proceeded to 
account for the structure and harmony of 
the spheres, and, indeed, much pertaining 
to all material things. Nothing seems to 
have been discovered v^hich does not har- 
monize with this assumption, but much has 
been discovered by working in line with 
it; hence, so completely does this assump- 
tion of the attraction of gravitation account 
for everything to which it relates, that it 
is termed, not only a working hypothesis, 
but a law of nature. Evolution is an as- 
sumption by which physical transformation, 
from primordial fire-mist, through various 
stages up to the highest development of 
man, has been evolved. But it has so many 
breaks, and requires so many guesses neces- 
sary to iU application, it has not been uni- 



Spiritual Perception of God. 81 

versally accepted among scientists as more 
than an hypothesis. But faith assumes 
nothing, but has God as a fact of which 
we can not be rid — a fact independent and 
righteous- — a fact upon which it acknowl- 
edges moral responsibility, seeks the subjec- 
tion of the affections, propensities, desires, 
and will — the whole man and all he does — 
to that ideal life which conscience main- 
tains. In other words, the man of thorough 
faith not only holds himself responsible di- 
rectly to God for his intentions in all things, 
but seeks to bring all his force and feel- 
ings into such harmonious submission to 
God as will render him capable of pure in- 
tentions. And when we consider the uni- 
versal selfishness of man and the stubborn 

persistence of selfishness in the affections 
6 



82 The Fact of God. 

of each person, we can see what a revolu- 
tion is contemplated by faith — a revolution 
which, if it succeed, is nothing short of a 
demonstration of faith — not an hypothesis, 
but a demonstrated law. This brings us 
to face the question, Does the faith-life gain 
a response from God which confirms the de- 
mands of conscience? 

To believe in the existence of God as 
the true solution of existing phenomena is 
simply a philosophy. One can hold such 
a belief without being in the least relig- 
ious. The belief that the God worshiped 
is aware of that worship, cares for it, and 
responds to it with evident sympathy and 
aid for the worshiper, is the real and es- 
sential basis of religion. The effectual 
faith, which is a true coming unto God, 



Spiritual Perception of God. 83 

believes, not only that he is, but is *^a Re- 
warder of them who diligently seek him/' 
This is religion. This is an active, prac- 
tical acceptance of the moral authority of 
conscience, and resigning of all the sus- 
ceptibilities and powers of our nature to 
its dominance. Hence, our query is, does 
this self-subjection to the sovereignty of 
God in conscience result in relief, help, 
moral purifying, and strength to the person, 
and in such a way as to make him know 
that the change is dependent upon his 
faith? Does the soul, conscious of its guilt 
for wrong-doing, wrong-intending, selfish- 
ness, become conscious of passing from 
known condemnation by conscience to a 
consciousness of relief from that condemna- 
tion? In the effort to repent of sin, to re- 



84 The Fact of God. 

nounce selfishness, to seek a love of right- 
eousness, to attain a desire for the holy — 
in a word, to love God — does he find help 
by worshiping God? Does he become con- 
scious of moral purifying, and of moral 
strength to hate selfishness, to dread sin, 
resist temptations thereto, to rise above his 
former vices, and ultimately overcome his 
former evil habits? Do numbers of such 
worshipers improve society, make property, 
life, and reputation safer? Does the ex- 
tending of such a religion in the world 
make individual character of greater value, 
soften and subdue the ferocity of human 
selfishness, improve civilization, increase in- 
dustry and amplify the resources of men 
and nations, and promote the dignity, kind- 
liness, and happiness of mankind? 



Spiritual Perception of God. 85 

An afBrraative answer to all these inter- 
rogatories is the common voice o£ both 
biography and history. The records of 
ancient times tell ns of those who by faith 
^^obtained a good response," received moral 
strength to endure unspeakable persecu- 
tions, perform prodigies of moral courage 
and power, and build splendid nationalities, 
and give new and better direction to human 
affairs. A sensual and blood-guilty king, 
conscience-smitten, bewails himself before 
God, crying, ^^Create in me a clean heart,'^ 
and, continuing in supplication until his 
natural sensibilities, by a faith-prompted 
self-renunciation^ are subjected to the be- 
hest of conscience, he becomes conscious 
of pardon and a change of heart, which led 



86 The Fact of God. 

him to place on record his experience in 
such glowing words as these: 

** Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, 
Whose sin is covered. 
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord im- 

puteth not iniquity, 
And in whose spirit there is no guile. 
AVhen I kept silence, my bones waxed old 
Through my roaring all the day long. 
For day and night thy hand was heavy upon 

me: 
My moisture was changed as the drought of 

summer. 
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, 
And mine iniquity have I not hid. 
I said, I will confess my transgressions unto 

the Lord ; 
And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." 

The history of faith, in all its- essentials, 
is virtually the same in all human experi- 
ence. The variances are in the means and 
motives which incite to faith, and the de- 



Spiritdal Perception of God. 87 

gree or depth to which men permit its work 
to go in their characters and practice. 
Under the teachings and deeds of Christ, 
the natural incitements to faith were re- 
affirmed, and instigation to the deepest 
spiritual experiences of God's independent 
judging, pardoning, and purifying presence 
were superadded. Electricity existed be- 
fore Adam just as it does now; but, by our 
increased knowledge and the exigencies of 
our times, we have been led to an experi- 
ence of its presence where little suspected, 
and of vast utilities, delights, and spec- 
tacular splendors of which it is capable. 
Once regarded with only terror and awe, 
it has now come to ^^aid our infirmities.^' 
Similarly, Christ brought men to under- 
stand that the independent authority of God 



88 The Fact of God. 

in conscience was present, not only to afford 
an absolute standard of moral purity, but 
to help men to rise to peaceful experience 
of harmony with that standard; and more, 
to find such emotional tranquillity and en- 
thusiastic sympathy with conscience as to 
recognize the personality and companion- 
ship of God, and find ourselves able to love 
him supremely. After such teaching, act- 
ing, and living among men as evinced the 
personal presence and sympathetic love of 
God for sinners, Christ told them it was 
expedient for them that he go away, in 
order that they, by continuing in prayer, in 
his name, might be able to exercise a faith 
sufficiently deep and spiritual to seek God 
with the supreme object of gaining moral 
purity in their deepest affectional nature ; 
LofC. 



Spi^^itual Perception of God. 89 

a faith that did not seek any object of 
selfish ambition or desire, no continuance 
of Christ among them as a mighty Healer, 
Teacher, or prospective Jewish King, but 
a faith which should seek God as the con- 
demning Judge of sin and the loving Savior 
of sinners, whose kingdom is within us. 
Under this instigation, now seeking the 
pure spirituality of religion, his followers 
continued in prayer and supplication until 
their hearts and minds were brought to a 
state of faith which was complete sub- 
servience of the practical to the ideal char- 
acter. Then and there they recognized the 
inner kingdom ; the Spirit of God witnessed 
with their spirits that they were children 
of God. Then and there, on the notable 
day of Pentecost, in the city of Jerusalem, 



90 The Fact of God. 

the Christian faith was demonstrated by 
meiij to continue as the common faith of 
the Church through all time. It was one 
of the Beatitudes which Christ had 
preached, ^'Blessed are the pure in hearty 
for they shall see GodJ^ 

It is not to be ignored, much less de- 
nied, that thousands upon thousands of 
people bearing the Christian name have 
lived anything but morally pure lives. 
That fact needs no denial nor calls for 
defense. Moreover, many who are sincere 
in their faith, so far as it goes, fall short 
of the full realization of the pure heart 
which perceives God. But this is because 
of defective teaching, or a weak faith, 
which, though sincere, does not go far 
enough to apprehend the Spirit's witness. 



Spiritual Perception of God. 91 

Satisfied with the glory which proclaims 
the moral purity and sovereignty of God — 
the glory which condemns them, which 
condemnation they, with the devout Jew, 
meekly acknowledge by a theoretic belief 
and chastened conduct — they hence fail to 
pass over from the ^^glory of condemnation'' 
to "the greater glory" of the children of 
God, who have attained to the filial feel- 
ing, "the spirit of adoption/' A faith 
which prompts a repentance which digs 
down through every stratum of selfish 
thought, intent, affection, desire, and pro- 
pension, and rests only upon the independ- 
ent Eock of Ages, is full Christian faith. 
But it is the distinctively Christian faith 
unto a pure heart that sees God which has 
moved the world in its grand strides to- 



92 The Fact of God. 

ward ideal character and society. Such it 
was that commonly characterized the Chris- 
tians of the first three centuries after Christ. 
Of these Christians, Pliny, a Roman gover- 
nor under Trajan, wrote to his emperor 
that it was futile to persecute and murder 
the Christians ; for such was their love of 
Christ and of his cause and people that 
they would gladly accept persecution and 
death. To use his own language, "Givo 
them a chance to die for their faith, and 
they will run like sheep to the slaughter." 
Such was the faith of Paul, John, Peter; 
and of Luther, Wesley, Whitefield, and 
I&aox. And such is the faith which sus- 
tains thousands of inconspicuous men and 
women who, amid the vast time-serving and 
self-seeking of our day, are maintaining 



Spiritual Perception of God. 93 

what the world most needs; namely, the 
demonstration that Christian faith actually 
saves sinners from the guilt, love, and 
power of sin. That there is any doubt of 
this, at this late day, is due to the godless 
lives of vast numbers of members and min- 
isters of the Christian denominations. 
Those who are members of the Church for 
thrift or social jDosition, or as accepting 
hereditary religious prejudices, or indeed, 
for any reason other than salvation from 
sin, are frauds upon the faith, and only 
increase the doubt of the unsaved millions 
as to the genuineness of all Christian pro- 
fession. But, notwithstanding so many are 
content with the tincture, but reject the 
essence of Christian faith, that faith is lift- 
ing and sustaining millions of sincere peo- 
ple by the demonstration of the Spirit and 



94 The Fact of God. 

the power of self -conquest. Moreover, their 
life and work have changed the public senti- 
ment of the world from rapine and plunder 
to benevolence and charity; insomuch that 
in the last century vastly more persons and 
moneys and time have been employed in 
simply doing good than in all the preceding 
ages of the world. Mankind are coming 
to see that love, the divine nature, is the 
great force which is working out the prob- 
lem of a free universe. 

Thus the fact of the independent, or per- 
fect, person, which is given in the fact of 
being, and implied in the fact of the de- 
j)endence of the universe, appears, in con- 
science, as Judge, and in the results of 
faith, as Helper, Savior, and Father to all 
who subject their affections and conform 
their lives to the fact of Ood. 



OCT 16 1901 



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